Bali: Money exchanger almost same as official exchange rate?

[fstuff1]

 

Official is $1usd for 15950 rupee.

All others were 15675.

 

What's the catch?

[fstuff1]

Now realize that the 15675 signs said no commission. (But the rate given is basically 2% commission)

The above sign doesn't say that.

So I'm assuming the 15895 place charged commission?

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by fstuff1

[NorthernJoey]

Another thing to remember when travelling to Bali. You will most likely find way better rate in some small shop. Even 20% better. Don't get tempted to use it.

Bali is notorious for money changing scams. I have personally learned it there in more than few places.

Only once I got scammed but it was quite a fight to get my cash back.

I would strongly recommend to use only official exchange places.

[fstuff1]

5 hours ago, NorthernJoey said:

Another thing to remember when travelling to Bali. You will most likely find way better rate in some small shop. Even 20% better. Don't get tempted to use it.

Bali is notorious for money changing scams. I have personally learned it there in more than few places.

Only once I got scammed but it was quite a fight to get my cash back.

I would strongly recommend to use only official exchange places.

How did the scam work?

[NorthernJoey]

So, two different scams, both in a small exchange vendor.

 

First one happened in Nusa Dua.

I handed to the man behind the counter  500 Euros in 50 Euro notes. So ten notes, and I knew it was ten. He then, without counting laid the € notes on a desk next to him and started to count Rupiahs.

Then he counted my € notes and said there is only 450€.

I told him for sure there is 10 notes. He re-counted and only 9 notes was there and I saw it. Asked to count it myself and same result.

Then I demanded him to stand up and open the top drawer of the work desk. He refused.

I went around the work desk and opened the drawer. Surprice ! There was one single crispy 50€ note on top of the stuff. End of story.

 

Another happened in Seminyak.

I changed 1000€ to Rupiahs. Great exchange rate btw !!! 1€= 16 000 IDR.

I got told that they will give me all of that in 50 000 IDR notes since they don't have any 100 000 IDR notes. Okay.

This means that it was more than 16 000 000 IDR. This means that I got 320 notes of 50 000 IDR. Or, I should have gotten that. The man counted this by hand in front of me and then handed the big pile to me.

I did not have time to count this big pile there, but counted later at our villa and found out that there is only little more than 13 000 000 IDR. So, I lost roughly 100 € there. No point going back since it was more than two hours since it happened.  Lesson learnt !!!

 

Here is a link of another scam from 2022:

 

https://thebalisun.com/bali-fraudulent-money-changing-scams-now-showing-up-in-canggu/

[Milhouse]

21 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

What's the catch?

Guessing it could be one of a few of common things:

There could be a commission as you mention or other fees that prevent you from getting the actual advertised rate.

The rate on the sign might be only to get you inside and then they do not give you that rate.  Eg. "Sorry, forgot to update the sign."

The rate might only be for large denomination (eg. $100), crisp bills.  

Might be running a scam on you like short changing you, dumping a fake bill onto you, etc.  I'm assuming the scam NorthernJoey was referring to is shortchanging.  One of the notorious scams in Bali apparently is counting out the money you're about to receive and then using slight of hand to pull a bill just before they hand it over to you.  You basically need to count it yourself when you receive the bills.  

ADD after seeing NorthernJoey's post:  Good point about confirming the number of bills you hand over too.

 

Personally, I didn't have a problem using a money exchange (I forget which) when I was in Bali a few years ago but I only changed single $100 bills at a time.  

For some reason, my friend and I had problems using the ATM's and couldn't withdraw cash even after trying different machines.